ATTRIBUTED TO ESAIAS FERNAU, HANAU, CIRCA 1770/1775, STRUCK WITH THE HANAU TOWN MARK FOR 18 CARAT GOLD

In an article which has just been published in the “Revue des Musées de France – Revue du Louvre” 2014, no. 3, p. 94-103, see p. 100-01 Dr Lorenz Seelig attributes the mark ES to Esaias Fernau who was one of the leading bijoutiers in Hanau. The three marks of the present box correspond exactly to those on a box in the Louvre illustrated in S. Grandjean, Catalogue des tabatières, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 556. Both boxes show similar applied palm branches on the walls, as does another box in the Louvre, illustrated S.Grandjean, op. cit., p. 352, no. 557. Two very similar boxes, with engine-turning attributed to Etienne Flamant, are illustrated in C. Truman, The Wallace Collection of Gold Boxes, London, 2013, p. 191. , no.77, pp.268-269.